Participants attending the Fifth Local and Regional Governments (LRGs) Forum, convening alongside this year’s High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), reflected on the impacts of the interconnected crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and conflicts, including the war in Ukraine, as well as on the resulting food, energy, and supply chain disruptions and forced migration.

The event highlighted innovative actions LRGs have been taking to protect the most vulnerable members of society and recover from these multiple crises through, among others, implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In his opening remarks during the HLPF Ministerial Segment, Abdulla Shahid, UN General Assembly (UNGA) President, said “there is hope.” The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) summary report of the Forum’s fifth meeting notes that “[p]art of that hope lies in the role that LRGs can play to bring about practical solutions” by, as Shahid suggested, helping “steer the ship away from the harmful practices that have put us on a self-destructive path…and to fully seize the historic opportunity for a profound transformation, renewal and reset.”

Mirroring the HLPF’s focus on SDGs 4 (quality education), 5 (gender equality), 14 (life below water), 15 (life on land), and 17 (partnerships for the Goals) – the five Goals undergoing in-depth review in 2022 – the Forum emphasized the link between the provision of local public services and education as a lever to address inequalities, the key role of women in local leadership, and the importance of LRGs’ contribution to protecting nature and biodiversity. The event underscored that “as the closest level of government to the people, LRGs have been playing a key role for many years in fostering peace and building bridges between communities and guaranteeing that their perspectives are reflected within policymaking at all levels.”

Co-organized by the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN-Habitat, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the Global Task Force of Local and Regional Governments, and the Local 2030 Coalition, the event convened in a hybrid format.

The first session took place online on 7 July, and featured panels on voluntary local reviews (VLRs) and voluntary subnational reviews (VSRs) as key policy tools for the SDGs and on multilevel governance and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

The second session met in person, for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 12 July. It featured panels on local public services and policies fostering achievement of the 2030 Agenda, and on looking towards the SDG Summit 2023 with localization at the forefront.

At the SDG Summit 2023, countries will conduct the mid-term review of the SDGs. [Earth Negotiations Bulletin coverage of the Fifth Local and Regional Governments Forum]